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OTTAWA -- Canada Post employees want Canadians to be able to bank on them in the future.

In an effort to remain relevant in the face of deep cuts to postal service in Canada, postal employees have begun lobbying to bring back postal banking, which ended in 1969.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says that the thousands of postal offices across the country should begin offering services such as insurance, savings deposits and checking accounts.

The union claims that banking services could generate much-needed income for the corporation, which recently announced the end to door-to-door delivery in response to declining demand for mail services in Canada.

Postal banking would be particularly beneficial for rural or low-income Canadians, who the postal union claims are underserved by the major banking institutions.

CUPW, which represents 54,000 post employees, held a weekend conference in Ottawa with the goal of making Canadians aware that postal banking in Canada is possible.

The corporate administration of Canada post, however, is against the idea.

Canada Post spokeswoman Anick Losier said in a statement that the corporation studied the idea and "it became clearly evident that the challenges to make postal banking viable were insurmountable."

CUPW, however, says the decision to deny Canadians postal banking services is political, not logistical, and previous post administrations were in favour of the initiative.

Canadians were able to bank at their postal office since Confederation. Parliament created the Post Office Savings Bank in 1868, only to end postal banking 100 years later.

CUPW's Mike Palacek said the majority of his membership supports postal banking.